DOCSLIB.ORG

Bulletin Will in Conjunction with the Meeting of the American Print the Entire Schedule for Both Meetings

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bulletin Will in Conjunction with the Meeting of the American Print the Entire Schedule for Both Meetings B u l l e t i n The North American Paul Tillich Society Volume XXXV, Number 2 Spring 2009 Editor: Frederick J. Parrella, Secretary-Treasurer Religious Studies Department Santa Clara University Kenna Hall, Suite 300, Room H Santa Clara, California 95053 Associate Editor: Jonathan Rothchild Production Associate: Benjamin Petrick Telephone: 408.554.4714 FAX: 408.554.2387 Email: [email protected] Website: www.NAPTS.org _________________________________________________________________________ In this issue: Annual Meeting in Montreal New Publications on Tillich The Spring Paul Tillich Lecture at Harvard “Tillich’s Indebtedness to Kant: Two Recently Translated Review Essays on Rudolf Otto’s Idea of the Holy” by Chris L. Firestone “Tillich and King on Love and Justice and the Significance for Models of Restorative Justice” by Jonathan Rothchild “‘Symbol is the Language of Religion.’ The Conditions of Tillich’s Theory of Symbol in His Early Writings” by Christian Danz “Looking at the Truth of Art in Tillich and Marion: Symbolic Depth and the Saturated Phenomenon” by David K. Miller “Symbol, Sacrament, and Spirit(s): Paul Tillich in Recent Pentecostal Theology” by Christopher A. Stephenson “What Would Tillich Do?: A Tillichian Contribution in Evangelical Ethics” by David Barbee “Paul Tillich and the Gospel of Prosperity” by Nathaniel C. Holmes, Jr. ___________________________________________________________________________ Saint John’s University. He is the author of the Annual Meeting award-winning book, A Blueprint for Humanity. Paul Tillich’s Theology of Culture. A reminder: The annual meeting of the North The AAR Group, Tillich: Issues in Theology, American Paul Tillich Society will be held in Mont- Religion, and Culture, will meet on Saturday and real, Quebec, Canada, on Friday, 6 November 2009, Sunday at the AAR meeting. The Fall Bulletin will in conjunction with the meeting of the American print the entire schedule for both meetings. Academy of Religion. The annual banquet will be For information and registration, see: held at a local restaurant Friday evening. Our http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/C speaker this year will be Raymond F. Bulman of urrent_Meeting/default.asp New Publications Paul Tillich Lecture Tillich, Paul. “El Derecho a la Esperanza.” Transla- n Monday, 4 May 2009, at 5:15 p.m. in the tion of “The Right To Hope.” [Originally pub- O Memorial Church of Harvard University the lished in The University of Chicago Magazine Spring 2009 Paul Tillich Lecture, “The Open Uni- 58, 2 (1965): 16–21. In Presencia Ecuménica verse and the Sacred, ” by Stuart A. Kaufmann, Vis- (Caracas, Venezuela) 65 (Enero-abril 2009): 9– iting Professor of Science and Religion, Harvard 15. Divinity School (Spring Term), and Director, Insti- Tillich, Paul. Berliner Vorlesungen III (1951-1958): tute of Biocomplexity and Informatics, University of Ontologie (1951), Die menschliche Situation im Calgary, Canada. Lichte der Theologie und Existentialanalyse Professor Kauffman, MD (BA Hons., Oxford) (1952), Die Zweideutigkeit der Lebensprozesse holds joint appointments at the University of Cal- (1958). Herausgegeben und mit einer his- gary in biological sciences, physics and astronomy torischen Einleitung versehen von Erdmann and is an adjunct professor in philosophy. A gradu- Sturm (Ergänzungs- und Nachlassbände zu den ate of Dartmouth College (1960) with his medical Gesammelten Werken von Paul Tillich, Band degree from the University of California, he has XV). Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter taught biophysics, biochemistry, and theoretical bi- Evangelisches Verlagswerk, 2009. ology at the University of Chicago and the Univer- Les Peurs, La Mort, L’Espérance autour de Paul sity of Pennsylvania. A MacArthur Fellow (1987- Tillich, eds. Lucie Kaenel and Bernard Rey- 1992), Professor Kauffman is a founding scientist mond. XVIIe Colloque International de and an external professor at the highly interdiscipli- l’Association Paul Tillich d’Expression Fran- nary Santa Fe Institute, where he has done pioneer- çaise, 3-5 May, 2007, Fribourg, Switzerland. ing visionary work in complexity science. With im- Münster and London: LIT Verlag, 2009. portant applications of his work in management the- Fante, Ryan. “An Ontology of Health: A Characteri- ory, he has founded four companies, including zation of Human Health and Existence.” Zygon Genesys Molecular, Inc. and the Bios Group LP, 44, 1 (2009): 65-84. [Editor’s note: this paper Santa Fe (acquired in 2003 by NuTech Solutions). was originally written while Mr. Fante was an Professor Kauffman has published 250 articles undergraduate at Santa Clara University. He is and four books, including The Origins of Order currently in his third year of medical school at (1993), At Home in the Universe (1995), and Rein- the University of Colorado. The Bulletin is seek- venting the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, ing permission from Zygon to reprint his paper and Religion (2008), selected as one of the finalists in the Summer or Fall issue.] for the prestigious 2009 Warwick Writer’s Prize Wariboko, Nimi. “Emergence and “Science of (UK, $90,000). Professor Kauffman has recently Ethos”: Toward a Tillichian Ethical Frame- addressed two international conferences on science work,” Theology and Science 7, 2 (2009): 189- and religion, the May 2008 Qoha, Qatar conference 206. on “Science, Cultures and the Future of Humanity” Abstract: Gordon Kaufman has recently inter- and the March 2009 five-day Vatican Conference on preted emergence (“serendipitous creativity”) in Science and Evolution. religious terms as “ultimate mystery,” “the di- A dinner in Professor Kauffman’s honor was vine,” or ultimate point of reference. Using Til- held following the lecture at 7:15 p.m. in the Library lich notion of ethics as “science of ethos” or of the Harvard Faculty Club. “science of culture” this paper attempts to work out some of the ethical implications of this theo- [Editor’s Note: William Crout, Founder and Curator logical naming of emergence. The implications of the Paul Tillich Lectures, is pleased to announce are brought to light in an ethical framework that that the Lectures have moved from sponsorship of not only traces and clarifies the lure of the mys- the Harvard Divinity School to Harvard's Memorial tery at work in the culturally creative functions Church, warmly welcomed by the Reverend Profes- of persons and social groups, but also shows sor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian how the creative functions of human life can ex- Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church. press the unconditional eros of serendipitous The 2008-2009 Lecture by Professor Kauffman is creativity. the 34th in the series. The lecture is available for Bulletin of the North American Paul Tillich Society, vol. 35, 2, Spring 2009 3 MP3 download at: http://www.memorialchurch.har- scending Kant. We all try to do this.”3 In Tillich’s vard.edu/ef/education.shtml#tillich.] earliest work on Schelling, the influence of Kant’s philosophy on his student years is undeniable. Victor Nuovo, in summing up this influence in his “Intro- Editor’s Note: a complete report of the duction” to the English translation of the first disser- APTEF Colloque in Paris, 15-17 May, tation, writes, “Tillich’s [Ph.D.] dissertations may be viewed as attempts, through Schellingian concepts, will appear in the Summer Bulletin to overcome the Kantian antithesis of historical faith and moral religion, and to provide a metaphysical Tillich’s Indebtedness to Kant: basis for Kant’s doctrine of radical evil and the self- 4 Two Recently Translated Review Es- estrangement of the autonomous moral will.” says on Rudolf Otto’s Kant’s influence on Tillich was surely profound Idea of the Holy and foundational, but was it such that it can be what I am calling “constitutive significance” to Tillich’s thought in the way Schelling’s is accepted to be? In Chris L. Firestone other words, did Kant’s philosophy help form some of Tillich’s basic concepts and bring shape to the Introduction overall structure of Tillich’s thought? My answer to common way of approaching the theology of both of these questions is “Yes.” Yet, there is a sense A Paul Tillich is to show its relationship to and in which this answer might rightly be viewed as reliance on the philosophy of Friedrich W. J. something of a truism or non-falsifiable thesis. One Schelling. It is common knowledge, for instance, of the distinguishing features of the German Idealists that Tillich attributed his theological awakening to generally is that they all saw themselves as the true his first encounter with the writings of Schelling in a heirs of the best of Kant. They were all in one way bookstore as a university student and that or another responding to problems left in the wake Schelling’s work provided a model for how philoso- of Kant and they relied on Kant’s writings for intel- phy and theology could be synthesized and fruitfully lectual resources for help in resolving them. In other employed to meet the conceptual challenges of the words, it is not all that surprising nor is it all that th 20 century. In reference to his early struggles with risky to suggest that Tillich’s work is likewise reli- the doctrine of justification and the inadequacy of ant on and responsive to Kant’s philosophy. If that strong-handed applications of orthodoxy for over- were my only argument, I would not be saying all coming them, Tillich writes, “It was the work of that much. No “constitutive significance” would Schelling, particularly his late thought, which helped thereby be shown. me relate these basic theological ideas to my phi- The argument I want to sketch out and defend in losophical development. Schelling’s philosophical brief, however, is a little more sophisticated than this ideas opened the way, I thought, to a unification of and I think does point to the constitutive significance 1 philosophy and theology.” Tillich, of course, goes of Kant’s philosophy for Tillich’s theology.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Discourses of the Secular Sublime and the Concepts of the Numinous and Mysterium Tremendum in the Work of Rudolf Otto
    THE DISCOURSES OF THE SECULAR SUBLIME AND THE CONCEPTS OF THE NUMINOUS AND MYSTERIUM TREMENDUM IN THE WORK OF RUDOLF OTTO Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Mary Catherine Theresa Bridget Jones Department of English University of Leicester July 2017 The Discourses of the Secular Sublime and the Concepts of the Numinous and Mysterium Tremendum in the Work of Rudolf Otto Mary Catherine Theresa Bridget Jones Abstract This thesis explores historical and postmodern ideas of the sublime and the numinous, and finds similarities and differences between the two concepts. Consideration is given to notions of the sublime, from its appearance in Longinus’s treatise Peri Hypsous, through to its historical development and reception by philosophers, theologians, and eighteenth- century theorists. The thesis discusses how the sublime is conceived in contemporary thought. Alongside this concept, and in order to examine similarities and differences between that and the numinous, Rudolf Otto’s work Das Heilige is used, in which the author argues for consideration of a non-rational element in religion and pleads for an original understanding of the holy. He shows how traditional representations of the deity lead to restrictions and limitations, and introduces his understanding of the mysterium tremendum et fascinans which, like the sublime, leads to awe and dread. Further analysing the sublime, the thesis discusses critical theories presented by John Dennis, Joseph Addison, John Baillie, Immanuel Kant, and Edmund Burke. I show how Otto was influenced by these writers, and how Friedrich Schleiermacher’s ideas on the essence of religion and the sensus numinis paved the way for Otto’s thinking.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dœtrine of Atondieni' in the Theology of Paul Tillich
    THE DŒTRINE OF ATONDIENI' IN THE THEOLOGY OF PAUL TILLICH Art.hington Frank Thompson, B.A., B.Th. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Researeh in partial .f'ul.filment of the requirements for the degree of Mast er of Sa.cred Theology. Depa.rtment of Divinity, McGill UniversitT, Montreal. April, 1960. ii The author of this thesis wishes to express his gratitude to Dr. James S. Thomson of the Faculty of Divinity, McGill University for his patient direction of a sometimes hazardous enterprise. Mention should be made too of the author' s indebtedness to Dr. William R. Coleman, of Huron College, London, Ontario, through whom he was first intro­ duced to the writings of Paul Tillich. iii TABIE OF CONI'ENrS Page INI'RODUCTION 1 I. A SYSTEMATIC APOIDGETIC THEOLOGY 5 An Apologetic Theology 6 The Method of Correlation 13 Tillich t s Ontolo~ am The Problem of The ystem 20 II. THE HUMAN Sri'UATION 32 Existentialism and Atonement. 33 PhilosoJfly and The Fall 39 Estrangement 45 Evil 52 III. THE DOCTRINE OF GOD AND THE DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT 59 God as 1Being-Itself' 60 Images and Atonement 69 God and The Processes of Atonement 74 IV. THE DOCTRINE OF ATOrmŒ:m' The New Being S5 Atonement in Christ 94 Atonement as The Act of God 100 Atonement in The Cross and The Reasurrection 106 Atonement in History llO COJ.CWSION ll7 BIBLIOGRAPHY INI'RODUCTION The doctrine of atonement attempts to elaborate the statement of the Creed that it was "for us men and for our salvation" that Jesus Christ was born, lived, died and rose again.
    [Show full text]
  • Patterns in Spiritual Awakening: a Study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot
    American University in Cairo AUC Knowledge Fountain Theses and Dissertations 6-1-2017 Patterns in spiritual awakening: A study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot Lucy Shafik Follow this and additional works at: https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds Recommended Citation APA Citation Shafik, L. (2017).Patterns in spiritual awakening: A study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1366 MLA Citation Shafik, ucyL . Patterns in spiritual awakening: A study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot. 2017. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1366 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by AUC Knowledge Fountain. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of AUC Knowledge Fountain. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences Patterns in Spiritual Awakening: A Study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot A Thesis Submitted to The Department of English and Comparative Literature In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Lucy Shafik Under the supervision of Dr. William Melaney May 2017 The American University in Cairo Patterns in Spiritual Awakening: A Study of Augustine, Coleridge and Eliot A Thesis Submitted by Lucy Shafik To the Department of English and Comparative Literature May 2017 In partial fulfillment of the requirements for The degree of Master of Arts Has been approved by Dr. William Melaney Thesis Committee Advisor____________________________________________ Affiliation_________________________________________________________ Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Humanities the Issue of the Religious Dimension Of
    PERIODYK NAUKOWY AKADEMII POLONIJNEJ 37 (2019) nr 6 HUMANITIES THE ISSUE OF THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSION OF HUMAN NATURE Jan Mazur Prof. PhD, Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, e-mail: [email protected], http://orcid.org/0000-0002- 0548-0205, Poland Abraham Kome PhD, John Paul II International University of Bafang, e-mail: [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0001-7326-227X, Cameroon Abstract. This text is an attempt to answer the question of whether human nature needs religion. The author begins by presenting two concepts that are key in this discourse. These are the terms: religion and human nature. Then he undertakes an analysis of the problem, referring to the thoughts of religious experts: Rudolf Otto and Mircea Eliade and the philosopher Max Scheler. The subject of reflection is the definition of man as 'homo religiosus'. Questioning God's existence has a negative effect on human nature. This situation is illustrated by the views of two known philosophers, existentialists - Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre. Their vision of the world was marked by unbelief in God. Life experience teaches that human nature strives for transcendent reality, longs for God. Any departure from this tendency does not, however, invalidate the religious nature of man, but certainly falsifies it. It results in the conversion of an authentic sacrum into its substitutes. In conclusion, the author draws attention to the mystery of man and God, which should be recognized. It is only in this perspective that the problem indicated in the title can be considered. The inspiration for such thinking is the famous phrase of Saint Augustine of Hippo: 'The human soul is restless until it rests in God'.
    [Show full text]
  • Faith, Reason and Philosophy Lectures at the Al-Azhar, Qum, Tehran, Lahore and Beijing
    Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 20 Series IIA, Islam, Volume 7 Faith, Reason and Philosophy Lectures at the al-Azhar, Qum, Tehran, Lahore and Beijing by George F. McLean The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Copyright © 2000 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication McLean, George F. Faith, reason and philosophy : a series of lectures at Cairo, Tehran, Qom. Lahore, and Beijing / by George F. McLean. Appendix : the encyclical letter, Fides et ratio. p.cm. – (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I, culture and values, vol. 20; Series IIA Islam; vol. 7) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Faith and reason—Christianity. 2. Faith and reason—Islam. I. Catholic Church, Pope (1978- : John Paul II). Fides et ratio. English. II. Title. III. Series. IV. Series cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I, Culture and Values; vol. 20. Series IIA, Islam, vol. 7. BT50.M345 2000 00-031602 210—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-130-1 (pbk.) Table of Contents Introduction 1 Part I. Context: The Evolution of Reason as Awareness of God Chapter I. An Archeology of Reason as Inherently Religious 7 Chapter II. Systematic Graeco-Christian Philosophy 23 Part II. Medieval Islamic and Christian Philosophies on Faith and Reason: Crisis and Response Chapter III. Al-Ghazali: a Medieval Crisis of Faith and Reason 39 Chapter IV. The Role of Reason in Belief: A Christian Response 51 Chapter V.
    [Show full text]
  • “Baptized Mysticism”: an Exploration of Paul Tillich’S Theology of Mysticism and Its Spiritual Theological Implications
    “BAPTIZED MYSTICISM”: AN EXPLORATION OF PAUL TILLICH’S THEOLOGY OF MYSTICISM AND ITS SPIRITUAL THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS by Sanghoon Baek A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Knox College And the Pastoral Department of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Knox College and the University of Toronto © Copyright by Sanghoon Baek 2014 “BAPTIZED MYSTICISM”: AN EXPLORATION OF PAUL TILLICH’S THEOLOGY OF MYSTICISM AND ITS SPIRITUAL THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS Sanghoon Baek Doctor of Theology Pastoral Department Knox College and the University of Toronto 2014 ABSTRACT This thesis explores Paul Tillich’s theology of mysticism and its spiritual theological implications. It argues that Tillich’s concept of “baptized mysticism” weaves together his thoughts on mysticism and expresses a dialectical unity of Tillich’s two essential elements of religion, the mystical and the prophetic. The thesis begins in Chapter 1 with an overview of Tillich’s own experiences of the mystical and his definitive expressions of mysticism, then investigates his major writings in drawing out essential features of baptized mysticism in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3, various appraisals of Tillich’s theory of mysticism from different vantage points and denominational backgrounds are presented to sharpen and enhance the understanding of his thoughts on mysticism and their spiritual theological implications. Finally, in conversation with some contemporary theorists of Christian spirituality, the thesis provides a modest proposal for Tillichian spirituality and prayer in Chapter 4. Paralleling aspects of the thought of Philip Sheldrake, Tillichian spirituality concerns the life oriented towards a sense of the “eternal now” and promotes not so much an ideal of a perfected state of being, but the “belief-ful” and courageous encounter of ontological threats and radical doubt in a condition of ever- increasing awareness, freedom, relatedness, and transcendence.
    [Show full text]
  • The Polanyi-Tillich Dialogue of 1963: Polanyi's Search for a Post-Critical Logic in Science and in Theology
    The Polanyi-Tillich Dialogue Of 1963: Polanyi's Search For A Post-Critical Logic In Science And In Theology Richard Gelwick ABSTRACT: Key words: faith, doubt, indwelling, participation, hierarchical universe, tacit knowing, Gestalt, pragmatism, Dewey, Teilhard de Chardin Michael Polanyi found in the thought of Paul Tillich an ally for Polanyi’s program of showing the fiduciary component in all knowing including science. Polanyi saw, however, a danger in Tillich’s distinguishing science as preliminary concern and religion as ultimate concern. In a significant dialogue in 1963, Polanyi and Tillich met and addressed issues, agreeing that science and religion share a common epistemological structure. In 1962 - 63, Michael Polanyi was making major steps in his work towards a post-critical theory of knowledge. In the Fall, he joined Tillich in the list of those having given the Terry Lectures at Yale. Polanyi’s Terry Lectures eventually appeared in Polanyi’s book, The Tacit Dimension.1 The phrase, “the tacit dimension,” became a summarizing terminology for Polanyi’s restructuring of our theory of knowledge. It moved away from the Cartesian emphasis upon the explicit and focal part of knowledge that could be described with clear, distinct, and indubitable ideas to an emphasis upon the implicit and subsidiary part of knowledge that is embodied in the person of the knower. Throughout his quest for a new theory of knowledge, Polanyi was in dialogue with theologians, encouraged particularly by J. H. Oldham, a leader in the ecumenical movement and the organizer of The Moot--a multidisciplinary group of theologians, philosophers, writers, and social thinkers discussing the crisis of modern culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul in the Grip of the Philosophers
    1 Nietzsche The Archetype of Pauline Deconstruction Peter Frick Das Christenthum dagegen zerdrückte und zerbrach den Menschen vollständig und versenkte ihn wie in tiefen Schlamm. –Nietzsche1 Introduction In this essay I am discussing the proliferation of interest in Paul, namely the recent and increasing interest of contemporary European philosophers in the thought of the Apostle. Perhaps to the chagrin of Pauline interpreters, there exists a vexing interest in the Pauline corpus by Continental philosophers. Alain Badiou, for example, a French Marxist philosopher employs Paul in the service of his own philosophical interest and project. “Truth be told,” says Badiou, “Paul is not an apostle or a saint. I care nothing for the Good News he declares, or the cult dedicated to him. Irreligious by heredity . I have never really connected Paul with religion . or to any sort of faith”2 which, for Badiou, is a mere fable. Giorgio Agamben, in contrast to Badiou, focuses on the first few verses in Paul’s Letter to the Romans in which he “proposes to restore Paul’s Letters to the status of the fundamental 1. [1] Friedrich Nietzsche, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches. Kritische Gesamtausgabe 2, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari, 2nd ed. (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2002), 1:114. 2. Alain Badiou, Saint Paul. The Foundation of Universalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005), 1. 15 16 | Paul in the Grip of the Philosophers messianic text for the Western tradition.”3 Likewise, continental philosophers such as Slavoj Žižek,4 Jacques Derrida5 and Gianni Vattimo6 and others engage Paul also in their own philosophizing context.
    [Show full text]
  • The Redemption of the Feeling in Kierkegaard's and Tillich's Thought
    ICOANA CREDINTEI. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH VoL. 2 No. 4/2016 The Redemption of the Feeling in Kierkegaard’s and Tillich’s thinking PhD. Lehel BALOGH Department of Philosophy, Kyungsung University Busan, SOUTH KOREA Page | 60 E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT In the modern era, with the development of the “objective”, scientific method, subjective, personal feelings and emotions have gradually become somewhat dubious sources of knowledge. A few religious thinkers, however, particularly those emerging from the existential tradition, have come to revitalize the belief in subjectivity, along with the trust in the authority of faith and inwardness in finding out important truths about our personal existence and about the human condition in general. In my paper I wish to investigate and compare the thoughts of two highly influential Christian philosophers of the 19th and the 20th century, respectively; those of Søren Kierkegaard and of Paul Tillich. These two unique thinkers, although living under considerably different historical circumstances, carried out strikingly similar analyses about the role of emotions and faith in human life, and through the emphasis of such phenomena as anxiety and despair they both attempted to “redeem” and reaffirm the significance of feelings and the subjective side of reality. Keywords: subjectivity, inwardness, anxiety, truth and faith, religious existentialism KIERKEGAARD’S QUEST FOR AUTHENTIC SUBJECTIVITY Existence and inwardness, in other words, bringing the ontological truth of subjectivity to the fore: this is what elevates Kierkegaard's philosophy to be the prototype of all other existential philosophies. While combating the then dominating Systemphilosophie of German Idealism and especially that of Hegel, he gradually formulates and develops his own characteristic philosophical attitude.
    [Show full text]
  • The Sacred and the Profane
    THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE THE NATURE OF RELIGION by Mircea Eliade Translated from the French by Willard R. Trask A Harvest Book Harcourt Brace & Company San Diego New York London INTRODUCTION The extraordinary interest aroused all over the world by induced by the revelation of an aspect of divine power. The Rudolf Otto’s Das Heilige (The Sacred), published in 1917, still numinous presents itself as something “wholly other” (ganz persists. Its success was certainly due to the author’s new and andere), something basically and original point of view. Instead of studying the ideas of God and religion, Otto undertook to analyze the modalities of the religious experience. Gifted with great psychological subtlety, and thoroughly prepared by his twofold training as theologian and historian of religions, he succeeded in determining the content and specific characteristics of religious experience. Passing over the rational and speculative side of religion, he concentrated chiefly on its irrational aspect. For Otto had read Luther and had understood what the “living God” meant to a believer. It was not the God of the philosophers—of Erasmus, for example; it was not an idea, an abstract notion, a mere moral allegory. It was a terrible power, manifested in the divine wrath. In Das Heilige Otto sets himself to discover the characteristics of this frightening and irrational experience. He finds the feeling of terror before the sacred, before the awe-inspiring mystery (mysterium tremendum), the majesty (maf estas) that emanates an overwhelming superiority of power; he finds religious fear before the fascinating mystery (mysterium fascinans) in which perfect fullness of being flowers.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion & Philosophy
    Religion & Philosophy Books – General The Ego and the Id, Sigmund Freud Conscience: A Very Short Introduction, Paul Strohm On Liberty, J S Mill The Body and Society, Peter Brown Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Autobiography of Saint Teresa, Allison Peers Consciousness: An Introduction, Susan Blackmore The City of God, St Augustine The Concept of Mind, Gilbert Ryle Summa Theologiae, Aquinas The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins Natural Theology, Paley The Major Works, Anselm of Canterbury Books – Religion Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, David Christian Theology, Alister McGrath Hume A Theology: The Basics, Alister McGrath The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Books - Philosophy Jesus Through the Centuries, Jaroslav Pelikan An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, Julia Annas The Shadow of the Galilean, Gerd Theissen The Republic, Plato Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI Physics, Aristotle Issues in Human Sexuality, Church of England House of Bishops Metaphysics, Aristotle De Concordia, Anselm of Canterbury Principles of Philosophy, Rene Descartes The Coherence of Theism, Richard Swinburne Language, Truth and Logic, A J Ayer Principles of Christian Theology, John Macquarrie Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich A Critique of Pure Reason, Kant Catechism of the Catholic Church Varieties of Religious Experience, William James Books – Philosophy of Religion Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, Brian Davies God Talk is Evidently Nonsense, A J Ayer Consolation of Philosophy,
    [Show full text]
  • Rudolf Otto and the Kantian Tradition
    Rudolf Otto and the Kantian Tradition Philip C. Almond, Department of Studies in Religion, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4067 Much has been written about the relationship between Rudolf Otto's mature philosophy of religion and bis commitment to that philosophical tradition inaugurated by Immanuel Kant. Yet, a considerable lack of clarity still remains over the question of the extent to which Otto's commitment in the first decade of this Century to a version of Kantianism originally expounded by Jakob Fries (1773—1843) permeates the work for which Otto is most widely renowned, Das Heilige.1 In this article, I hope to demonstrate that Otto's commitment to Friesianism plays a much greater role in Das Heilige, especially in the structural framework of Otto's account of the Holy, than has previously been thought to be the case, not only of its more overtly philosophical parts, but of its apparently phenomenological parts also. Continuity and Discontinuity An essential part of this task is the resolution of the problem of the continuity of Otto's work — both within Das Heilige itself, and between it äs a whole and the earlier parts of Otto's work, especially his Kantisch- Fries'sche Religionsphilosophie2 in 1909. For how we perceive his philoso- phy of religion in Das Heiligey and his notion of the a priori category of the Holy in particular, depends upon whether we find an overall continuity or discontinuity within the corpus äs a whole. The first of these issues, that of the continuity within Das Heilige itself, is certainly a contentious one.
    [Show full text]